Helen Ette Park House

Formerly known as Wydown West, Park House was dedicated as Helen Ette Park House in May of 1991.

This hall was built as part of a $12.4 million residential complex, including Wydown House and a $1.1 million multilevel parking garage for housing residents.

These five-story halls are connected via a ground-floor corridor and are each 128,000 square feet. At the time of construction in 1989-90, they were considered the most advanced residence hall in the country, each with an exercise room, four music practice rooms with pianos and a multipurpose room with food service facilities. Each floor has a kitchenette and laundry room, and each room has either four single rooms or two double rooms, each with phone and computer-communication jacks.

Helen Ette Park

Helen Ette Park was an extremely loyal and generous supporter of Washington University in St. Louis for many years. A native St. Louisan and graduate of the university, she traveled to the Orient, where she met her future husband, Mungo Park, an English mining engineer. After their marriage, they moved to Malaysia, where he started an engineering and mining firm, and she grew hybrid orchids that were considered to be equal to, or better than, those of the King of Siam.

She also flew a Tiger Moth airplane during the 1930s, something unusual for a woman at the time. Later in her life, she established the Helen Ette Park Challenge Fund, a $500,000 challenge fund designed to encourage alumni and friends of the university to establish Washington University life income arrangements. She was also the 1988 recipient of the university’s Alliance Appreciation Award.